There has always been a basic fault with the statue. It’s extremely too low. It has always been too low to be viewed from the riverfront.

The statue blends in with the brick wall and the traffic that travels behind it. It’s time we get it right. We have to raise money to put a higher pedestal under the statue.

I am ready to contribute. The problem is right before your eyes, if you can see it.

JOSEPH O. SASEEN

Savannah

Solar businesses gouge Southeast consumers

In response to your April 22 article on solar energy: A century ago, utility companies were regulated by the federal government to maintain moderate energy prices so average people could afford electricity.

Needless to say, those days of the local/federal government looking out for their constituents are gone.

The small number of citizens like myself are held hostage by ever-changing rules, like the utility company capping how much electricity they will buy from people like me with a solar system.

The electric company’s price for purchasing a kilowatt hour of energy from me is less than what they charge me for theirs. If the above gouging was not enough, I could lease solar panels from the utility company and they would receive more profit.

Capitalism, you have got to love it.

Similar to the Military Industrial Complex, the Energy Industrial Complex has corrupted some people against their own best interest to include small business owners.

In other words, rather than assisting people by providing consultation, installation and service at a reasonable price, they (solar businesses) attempt to gouge the consumer with inflated prices, or attempt to slowly milk money from you by not being forthcoming or know just enough to be dangerous.

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to find competent solar technicians in the Savannah and Southeast area.

ALLEN DELANEY

Townsend

Obama must be willing to get his hands dirty

It may be possible to conduct foreign policy with a pure heart, but surely not with clean hands.

During the Cold War, our concern was Communist expansion and we had to ally with some unsavory characters in that battle: General Franco, the Shah of Iran, assorted ex-Nazi Germans and General Pinochet in Chile.

Now the threat is from fundamental, jihadist Islam.

We must again be ready for some unsavory associates: Vladimir Putin, who understands the Islamic threat; Chinese Communists who have their own concern about Muslim incursions; Hindu nationalists who fear Islam within and without India; and even Bashir Assad of Syria, who has protected Christians and Shiites from Sunni fanatics.

One only wonders whether President Obama has the good sense and realism to understand this or whether he is too much the blind idealist and guilt-ridden Third Worlder.

NORMAN RAVITCH

Savannah

Don’t use N-word to label environmentalists

The Nazis were an evil, murderous, racist regime that ruled through terror. To add “Nazi” to any group with whom one might disagree, be it Eco-Nazi or parking Nazi, is a blasphemy to everyone who lived, fought or died in World War II, or who experienced the horrors of the Nazis.

As far as I know, environmentalist have never rounded up and murdered SUV drivers, have never confiscated and destroyed factories, have never at gunpoint forced any homeowner to add solar panels to his house.

I have no problem with Marc Wilks, (Letter to the Editor, April 26) disagreeing with environmentalist, but I do find his use of the word “Nazi” to be offensive and ignorant.

ALLAN HILL

Savannah

Corporate officers not safe from consequences

Columnist Mark Murphy (“A tyranny of belief: The danger of political correctness,” April 27) misses the salient point regarding Brendan Eich’s departure from Mozilla.

Indeed, Eich is entitled to express his opinions, but a corporate officer is not immune to business consequences. When the facts came to light, three board members resigned, one of his larger clients strongly objected, and his employees (the view in Silicon Valley being different than Chatham County), expressed reservations about his leadership.

Eich failed at the board level, the client level and the employee level.

Eich had it right when he conceded his views/actions on Proposition 8 undermined this ability to lead Mozilla, which is what he was paid to do. What more defensible reason is there for a change in corporate leadership?

Murphy’s column shines an unexpected ray of sunshine on the spectre of Citizens United: There can be a downside to political contributions as speech.

Fear not, Eich can exercise his First Amendment rights fully with his family, with whom he will be spending more time.